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Nepal Earthquake: “We Heard People Crying From Inside the Rubble But We couldn't See Them”

"These are the numbers that show the scale of devastation from the struck Nepal on Saturday."

When the first 7.8 strength quake hit Kathmandu, Furwa Lama was in his small tea shop.

“The strength of the earth’s shake slowly increased and it felt like it would never stop. After it stopped, I a huge building in front of shop slowing crumble and then fell completely down with a huge bang.  There was dust everywhere and we couldn't see anything. It was very frightening. It was like something out of a film. Everyone was running Lots of people were crying. When I went over to the collapsed building, there were bodies everywhere, dead bodies, and injured people. It was terrible," he said.  

It was a seven story building called the ‘Saat tale’ that collapsed.  

Some injured people were rescued and taken to hospital.

But 20 year old Furwa Tamang says it was hard to find people.

"We heard people crying but we couldn't see then. Someone said he got a SMS from a friend saying, "I am inside. Save me. Take me out." In the mid-night, someone started honking a taxi horn from the rumble. It keeps honking everyone in a while. I can't explain how terrified I am," he said.

The next day one more person was rescued from the rubble. So far 45 dead bodies have been recovered.

The Government has estimated that more than 60 thousands buildings have been completely destroyed due to the earth quake.

"This is the calamity of enormous proportion. The rescue operation is still going on at the high and faraway places where there is no road access,” said Dr. Minendra Rijal a Government spokesperson.

Khadga Sen Oli the Advocacy and Outreach Manager of National Society of Earthquake Technology Nepal says the government was unprepared and has been poorly organized.  

“One rescue team of NSET joined with the Nepal Police and we have been to Gongabu Area. We been there and again we returned back because of the lack of the equipment. The rescuer team from the Nepal police had no equipment. How could they help people and rescue them? We lack capacity and there is a problem with coordination and we have no advance equipment for search and rescue.”

27 year old Manashi Adhikari was in the fourth floor of the building with her one and half year old daughter when earthquake happened.

One of her eyes swollen and her head and leg are in bandages.

She was pulled from the rubble with her daughter 4 hours after the quake.

"After a few hours, we hear footsteps and saw from men through a small hole, we shouted, help us help us. They broke the cement wall and we were able to come out and were taken hospital.”

Her one and half year old daughter was calmly sleeping on her shoulder.

Kathmandu has become a tent city.  

All the open spaces of Kathmandu are filled with tents while houses that survive are empty.

Bijay Shakya is here with his family.

"The aftershocks have made us leave our home and come on to the streets. We literally are too scared to go inside,” he said.

He says the government has not done enough to help them.

"Even a packet of noodle we can't find at the shops. We can't find any kind of vegetables. We are surviving on what we had before the disaster. We have no electricity, no mobile, and no charge devices. I haven't seen any officials. All houses are vacant. There is no security. Thieves are roaming around. We don't have drinking water. We can only buy it at a high price on the black market..”

Outside of Kathmandu there are 12 severely affected districts that have received no help.

Government Spokeperson Dr. Rijal admits they are struggling to copy.

"Nepal has limited resources and limited resources we can tap in to. I am not saying that this is the best response. No it has not been at all. We are improving as the days go by. We have accepted relief from many countries and also from international agencies.”

He calls on the international community to more.

"We need proper tents where we can put people for many months because they have lost houses. Water purifiers are important. Medical personnel are going to be more and more important. There are many places where there are loose electric cables. We have a Indian teams working in it. But we need more support in that. If you think you are in a position to do that, our ministry of foreign affairs and ministry of finance will be very willing to get in touch with you.”

• eng
• Nepal earthquake
• Rajan Parajuli
• natural disaster